Field
The disclosed and claimed concept relates generally to handheld electronic devices and, more particularly, to handheld electronic devices and methods that display and select diacritics.
Description of the Related Art
Numerous types of handheld electronic devices are known. Examples of such handheld electronic devices include, for instance, personal data assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, two-way pagers, cellular telephones, and the like. Many handheld electronic devices also feature wireless communication capability, although many such handheld electronic devices are stand-alone devices that are functional without communication with other devices. Such handheld electronic devices are generally intended to be portable, and thus are of a relatively compact configuration in which keys and other input structures often perform a plurality of functions under certain circumstances or may otherwise have a plurality of aspects or features assigned thereto.
Some known handheld electronic devices including, for example, a track ball, insert accents from a horizontal menu or list in response to a user holding a key and scrolling across using the track ball. For example, in response to entry of the letter “e” (e.g., from either a reduced keypad or from a full keypad), a horizontal menu or list shows, for example, “ë”, “ê”, “è”, “é” and “e”. Alternatively, a menu or list is not employed, but scrolling simply changes the accents, with the user not being necessarily aware of the future sequence of different possible accents.
Another known method of accent insertion by a handheld electronic device is to list the accents in a secondary grid format for insertion in response to a minimum of two user clicks.
Often, when a user is attempting to enter an accented character, a break in fluid typing is required in known handheld electronic devices, since the user must often search through a list or grid of all accents in order to find the desired accent. Hence, some users often neglect to include accents or an obscure letter treatment due to the large break in fluid typing.
A pie menu (also known as a radial menu or marking menu) is a circular popup menu where selection depends on direction. A pie menu is made of several “pie slices” around an inactive center and works best with stylus input, and well with a mouse. Pie menus also work well with keyboard acceleration, particularly four and eight item menus, on the cursor keys and the number pad. A goal of pie menus is to provide a smooth, reliable gestural style of interaction for novices and experts. A slice can lead to another pie menu; selecting this may center the mouse cursor in the new menu. Pie menus are often context-sensitive, showing different options depending on what the mouse cursor was pointing at when the menu was requested. Pie menus are drawn as pie slices with a hole in the middle for an easy way to exit the menu.
There is room for improvement in handheld electronic devices that display and select diacritics.
There is also room for improvement in methods of displaying and selecting diacritics for a handheld electronic device.
Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the specification.